The Fight Against Alzheimer’s to Get Much Harder

By 2060, expect the number of cases of Alzheimer’s to have tripled unless some unlikely events happen, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Here’s some signs to see if someone you know might have Alzheimer’s. By the way, do you notice a misspelled word. Photo from share.upmc.com

As of 2018, over 5 million people are currently battling the common form of dementia in the United States alone. That means that out of 100 people you know, one of them will most likely have contracted Alzheimer’s in their lifetime. With those chances it is still difficult to determine who is going to develop the disease, and as life expectancy increases, so too do cases of Alzheimer’s.

In a statement to NBC news, the CDC said that “CDC researchers predict that Hispanic Americans will have the largest projected increase due to population growth over the projection period.”

The CDC also stated that the people aged 65 years or older in the United States are expected to have doubled by the year of 2060. Their report was published in the journal Alzheimer’s and Dementia.

The population with the highest current percentage of Alzheimer’s are African Americans, with 13.8 percent of people older than 65 affected by the disease. Hispanic Americans are a close second with 12 percent, and whites have over 10 percent affected.

As of now, there is no cure for Alzheimer’s, which has become the fifth most common cause of death for Americans over the age of 65. Indeed, the neurologically-degenerating disease does not even have treatment methods to slow its progress. However, the slow and long process to even begin treatment is going on in labs across the nation.

Time will only tell if there’s any progress on finding a cure for Alzheimer’s.